Saturday, July 14, 2012

An Inside Job

I have dreamed to be a physician since I was four. At that time, most girls with a career interest were groomed to become teachers or nurses. I have never wavered in my desire to become a physician.

I went against my parents wishes and got accepted into a School of Medicine. They did not want for me the lifestyle and the loss of the best years of my life, as they called it. I paid for my M.D. myself.

I took on a lot of debt. I spent long nights busy studying for an exam. I spent sleepless nights learning the trade side-by-side with my colleagues in the hospital at the medical center. I liked it so much, I chose to return and be a teaching doc, an academic physician, in the field of Anesthesiology, which was my dream since I was in undergraduate training.

It is important for the changes in Medicine come from within. Why is this?

As a physician, I do not trust someone that has not paid their dues like me. I do not respect any consultant whatsoever. And people who have once been docs and now have websites and a following but do not set foot in a hospital or touch and actual patient? As far as I am concerned they are not physicians like me. End of story.

They sold out. Anyone who has a 'center' that is named after them, where people can go on retreat and meditate, is not a working doc. They are making money off their Alternative Whatever That Is Popular. They are not like the majority of working docs who are too tired out to fill out their reappointment application to their place of work every two years.

There are some, that left the field of medicine. I am sorry. I don't care if you keep your medical license current or not. If you have not done cases and seen patients, you are not going to be allowed to recertify in your specialty. You can't. You would have to go back to work, in a hospital, and how would you get back if for years you had not done anything surgical? You would not even have a referral base.

It is a one-way street, and the lay person does not know that the majority of folks that they look up to are 'former' practicing physicians but are now 'M.D.'s' in name only. (Mona Lisa Schultz M.D. is the first exception that comes to mind. There are certainly other exceptions.)

There is a story that goes with each one of them: Dr. So-and-So has been psychically gifted since youth. They come from a psychic family. After training to be a doctor, they left a career to find their TRUE CALLING, that of giving hope and inspiration to people like you.

That is fine. If that is your calling, I am okay with it. Only do not come to me and expect me to give you street credibility when in fact in my view you do not. And I am Reiki Doc! Can you imagine what the others who are more conventional than me are going to think when they are approached by someone like you?!?

Does this make sense? Is it logical? How can M.D.'s who are actually taking care of patients motivate themselves to change how they care for these patients from someone who never has to work a night or holiday or see blood all over their shoes like me? It doesn't make sense for us to ask this of them.

And that is exactly what the doctor-maligning community of Energy Medicine is almost 100% about.
Take away Conventional Medicine! Primitive Mothers in 100% natural childbirth! No drugs to offend my delicate sensibilities! Needles are okay for acupuncture but not for immunizations or blood tests or i.v.'s!

I ask of you, why is there such urge to throw the baby out with the bathwater? Why is the general dissatisfaction with the not-so-good parts of medicine driving emotional pleas to scrap the entire system that we have in place? Does it not do some good? I know for a fact once my fibroid was resected I felt so much better!

If you ever have been really sick, you know at once your's doctor's gift of training is priceless in that they can help you in your plight.

I have been that sick. I had a pituitary tumor that was giving me headaches. My team was amazing, very professional, and in my being exposed to them, I came upon the strength to pursue my dream of being a physician against my parent's wishes.

The way I see it, there are two means to achieve this goal of bringing energy healing into conventional Medicine:

1) through the desire of the doctor, nurse, or other worker in the field: Pamela Miles has done this in an effective way. She taught herself how to 'speak doctor' and gain credibility in the medical community with her Reiki Work. She trains others how to interact effectively with working health care providers. Already there are workers, volunteers typically, that offer Reiki treatments to patients. Some docs notice the benefits and request it for their cancer patients. It will take time and lots of exposure to it, to get the docs/RN's/others to try it for themselves. Or to be awakened and hear their calling. It will take a few hardy souls with very thick skin to get into the system. Something is in place that is 'mainstream' that is called 'The Healing Touch'. It is nursing-driven, but a method much like Reiki. But it is not well-known in the Conventional Medicine Community. We need something to reawaken the Healers within the healing arts to bring about the acceptance of Energy Medicine as a specialty itself. I think of it somewhat like Interventional Radiology, imaging and healing in one step.

2) through the desire of the patient and the patient's family: the best way to bring it into the conventional system is to ask for it! Talk about the Elephant in the Room! To take your Reiki with you into the hospital when you go. To be Reiki-trained yourself, and to be a continuous source of Reiki wherever you go. Anything it takes to raise the vibration, and to assist those like me who are at the front lines of this healing trend. I know for a fact that once I started Reiki training, a whole new side of me as a healer opened up. I am more patient, compassionate, and willing to hold a hand or listen or offer a word or hope in my busy day. Isn't it worth it to do whatever it takes to bring the Healer back into Healthcare?

To achieve success, it is the heart center of the healers that will have to be activated. Going through the mind may open an opportunity, but only the heart center awakening is going to achieve the change that is so desperately needed in Conventional Medicine today.

In the future, everyone will take Energy Healing for granted. Right now we are at a standstill: conventional medicine is about as far as it is going to get. Everyone in the field is comfortable. to the point of complacency. The emergence of Alternative Medicine has not changed much about what we do at the Office or Hospital in the practice of Conventional Medicine. We who read these words are going to have to be like Rosa Parks that will keep their seat on the segregated bus. Doesn't it sound archaic--segregation? But it was once a way of life.

By the way, I am NO Martin Luther King! But I am honest in my assessment of the status quo. And I know what it is like to be a patient who is also a physician to bridge the gap between two realms of expectations.

The hook of Energy Medicine is the ease and speed and accuracy of diagnosis through the scanning of the sick. The hands of a Reiki practitioner are the way to sense an imbalance in the aura before it ever shows up on the body.

Our society will have to respect this, and allow for time for patients to return to balance and healing, when they are 'early sick'. Push this trend to the natural end point, and surgery will become a thing of the past. Pill-popping will be passe. There will be no more calls in the middle of the night to wake the healers up! And all will be healthier and happier as a result.

Will you take that first step? Will you find a class and take that Reiki 1? You can't do it from a book.

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About Me

I am a medical doctor who works in a hospital. I do anesthesia. I am also a Reiki practitioner. While I do anesthesia, I also make this form of Energy Healing available to my patients who wish to have it while their procedure is taking place.
I have quite a following at work. Many patients and coworkers request my services. Recovery room RN's love me. All of my patient report the same thing: they felt no pain. One friend's spouse actually made her take two of her pain pills at home because he absolutely could not believe she felt no pain after gallbladder surgery!